Amy Schumer Takes Us Inside Her New Comedy Central Series

Tuesday

Apr 30, 2013 at 6:22 AM

On Tuesday, the Last Comic Standing vet Amy Schumer debuts her very own series on Comedy Central. Inside Amy Schumer (10:30/9:30c) is a riotous mishmash of scripted scenes, recorded stand-up material, and interviews with regular Joes. Schumer took a few ...

TV Guide

On Tuesday, the Last Comic Standing vet Amy Schumer debuts her very own series on Comedy Central. Inside Amy Schumer (10:30/9:30c) is a riotous mishmash of scripted scenes, recorded stand-up material, and interviews with regular Joes. Schumer took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to call up TV Guide Magazine and get us Inside Amy.

TV Guide Magazine: How did the show come about?

Amy Schumer: Comedy Central and I had been kind of noncommittally dating for almost seven years. I'd been like, "That's cool, like, see other people." But they've been like, "Look, the door is always open, you can always come over here." And they were ready to make a commitment to me, so they gave me a bunch of money to film a television show. They totally put a ring on it. They kind of wanted me to do a late-night talk show.

TV Guide Magazine: You weren't into that idea?

Schumer: While I would like to be a host someday, right now that's just not what I'm itchin' to do. So with this show, my head writer, Jessi Klein, and I, went out and had too much wine, and she said, "Why don't you make the show of your dreams instead of making what they're pushing you to do?"

TV Guide Magazine: How'd you come up with the various elements of the show?

Schumer: Well, standup was a given. And then I've always liked doing man-on-the-street interviews. The scenes? I've always done theater - I'm actually a closeted theater nerd - but I started writing scenes, and playing them was just the funnest thing I've ever done. And then I was like, "I want to interview people." I really like talking to people longer than I would for man-on-the-street interviews, but I don't want to interview celebrities. I want to have a conversation with someone who's not really in my atmosphere. So I talk to a dominatrix, and a guy who works in a Bible-study camp, and a kid. I don't have any kids in my life.

TV Guide Magazine: I hear that everyone bombs at least once...

Schumer: [Laughs] At least once? More like once a week.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the worst experience you've had?

Schumer: Ooh. I feel like it's hasn't happened yet. But the worst I can remember was at Central Park Summerstage. I had been doing standup about two years, maybe three, and I'd been doing Last Comic Standing and I was doing well on there, and I hadn't been on the road at all yet. That's what makes a comic seasoned, you gotta do your jokes in front of people that don't just live within a three-mile radius of you. And I'd never performed outside. And I went on and I was so confident I was going to kill. I opened with a joke about people being raped in Central Park, and like, I just lost them right out of the gate. They were just staring at me. And sometimes if you're bombing, you can just be like, "Oh it's just weird acoustics and I can't hear the laughs," because that actually does happen in some venues. But I knew that that wasn't the issue, because I could hear just my mom and my friend laughing.

When you bomb like that, it's like an out-of-body experience. It's like going on a bad mushroom trip. And then afterward no one wants to make eye contact with you.

TV Guide Magazine: You have Jon Glaser in one of your vignettes in the premiere, where he plays a waiter at a sort of gender-reversed Hooters.

Schumer: Yeah! I got to play his girlfriend on Delocated and we had some really messed up sex scenes, which like barely aired, 'cause it was Adult Swim and they said, "We can't use this." I was like, "Well why did we shoot it, then?!" [Laughs] So this was my revenge: "Here, you're wearing a wrestling singlet and prosthetic testicles." It's totally fair. The universe is at peace.

TV Guide Magazine: Do you have any other guests this season you want to tease?

Schumer: Amber Tamblyn and I, we have a makeout scene. Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. Rob Schneider. And for comedy nerds, Tig Notaro and Kyle Dunnigan are some of my writers.

TV Guide Magazine: What TV do you love right now?

Schumer: Well, Enlightened got canceled, so I'm thinking about killing myself. Oh, Game of Thrones! And I really watch all of the Real Housewives. I don't know why. I feel angry all the time watching it, but I watch all of them. I don't like any of them as people... They're just villains. Maybe that's it, because I love villains; I always like to play the villain. They're all, like, gonorrheal. They're all just like the worst people. But I'm just Andy Cohen's puppet. If he produces it, I'm going to watch it.

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